Trump Unplugged

About 15 years back I happened to catch a live show by Jay Leno, who still toured now and then to do live comedy even while he was hosting The Tonight Show. And he opened by joking that he’d just appeared at the Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut, the large resort run by, and for the benefit of, the tiny Pequot Indian tribe. Leno joked, in a faux-Italian accent, that he was greeted at the door by a fellow who said, “Hi, I’m Guido, director of tribal affairs!”

This gag came back to mind when I stumbled across an old video of Trump testifying before Congress way back in 1993 about what he considered the unfair advantage Indian casinos enjoyed over his Atlantic City casinos, as Indian gaming on reservations enjoy large tax breaks and other special exemptions. Lefties have their knickers in a bunch over this, and you can see Democratic Rep. George Miller (now retired) blowing a gasket over Trump saying “They don’t look like Indians to me” (basically Leno’s joke). But I wonder whether Trump doesn’t have the winning card here, asking why all people engaged in the gaming industry shouldn’t be treated equally by the government. The way Trump talks back to Miller—almost unheard of on congressional committee hearings—is rather enjoyable.